


in the quiet of the night

by DictionaryWrites



Series: Brought To Justice [2]
Category: Marvel, Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers Tower, Ficlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 16:52:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14501388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DictionaryWrites/pseuds/DictionaryWrites
Summary: Short ficlet. Clint & Loki; compliant with Brought To Justice.May 1st Daily Prompt:  Your character believes in magic! Or maybe they don’t and have a pretty good reason why. Show us what your character believes or doesn’t believe. 400 words.





	in the quiet of the night

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt from [here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/8g689p/mays_magical_minifics_daily_prompts_for_may_2018/)

“What _is_ magic?” Loki pauses, turning his head to the side, and he feels the weight of Clint Barton’s gaze upon him.

“You ought be abed.” He returns to his exercises, feeling the tingling heat of the seiðr in his veins, and he stares between his palms as thread after golden thread of energy appears, weaving their way delicately about his fingers. It is an exercise in concentration and the _subtlest_ power, to keep each thread separate and distinct even as one weaves them into a pattern, and he feels the magic burn beneath his skin like a stretched muscle.

“What, you scared to tell me?” The threads meld together into a ball of golden energy, and Loki sighs his frustration, flicking his wrist and vanishing the mess.

“No, Mr Barton, I am not _scared_ to tell you.” Loki rises to his feet, turning to watch Barton over the empty training hall. The man is still wearing his night clothes, a black vest and his boxers – Loki glances to the camera in the corner of the basement training hall, and garners he is the only one awake at this hour, and thus who Barton had decided to bother. “Magic is… The truth of the universe. It is the energy that flows from the start to the end, the energy that connects the newest planet with the most ancient wormhole; the darkest moon with the brightest sun. It flows like a groundsea through time and space alike, to be drawn from the air as water from a well.”

Barton is watching him, his jaw set. “I never believed in magic.”

“You learned your lesson, didn’t you?” Loki asks, archly, and Barton’s lips twist into a snarl, showing anger, and fury, all at once. Sighing, Loki crosses his arms over his chest, and he watches the other man for a long few moments before he says, “What I did to you… That won’t happen again.”

“How do you know?”

“I know things,” Loki says simply, shrugging his shoulders.

“You lie about things.”

“Why lie about this?”

“Because you lie. It’s what you do.” Loki laughs, turning his head away, and he drops into a crouch once more.

“So I do,” he agrees softly. He expects Barton to leave, but he does not: he feels the younger man slowly kneel beside him, to watch his magic. Silent as he is, Loki allows it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Check out [my Tumblr](http://dictionarywrites.tumblr.com) for more, or if you want to send in a request.


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